I, with my co-authors, have this post on the Washington DC-based International Monetary Fund's blog today:
The IMF is one of the partners that fund the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency with whom I have worked to develop the Tax Transparency Principles to which the blog post refers. It's very good to receive their support in this way.
The full blog post is available here.
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Perhaps a neo-liberal economic institution that perpetuates a flawed understanding of how modern monetary systems works has its uses after all 😉
You do get around.
That is my job….
It is, and more than that. It is your vocation.
and we are grateful
Richard
Do you sense that some of the ossified Neo-liberal attitudes in the IMF/World Bank to these issues are thawing or melting? Has time reified how hollow the ‘theory’ has been? Do you think we are near an epiphany of some sort?
I only ask because it’s hard to tell from where I am standing. There’s no rush by the way – as noted you do get around.
I have met many with a wide range of opinions in both organisations over quite a period of time (I first visited DC to go to both in 2009)
“appraise the tax systems of countries, to promote accountability, raise tax morale and improve macroeconomic management. Civil society can use the Principles to argue for tax policies their communities want. Crucially, the Principles have been deliberately written to facilitate their use by these different groups. GIFT encourages feedback from stakeholders on their experiences in applying them.”
Hi Richard
congratulations again
Current UK emphasis is on tax which is easier at 20%. And as you have been saying money-creation by Bank of England not much discussed out there, TrussCon-omics (more money-creation, is that right, how i interpret that?), “debt” and deficit-focus. More payback later, wasn’t that the Conservatives’ now-defunct plan?
You say reality is that tax is to cancel most of that money-creation. “Payback” a ploy to justify ordinary people paying tax as though government spending depended on it. I think you’ve said. You’d rather a bit more spending to help more people avoid poverty – to an extent not needing “balancing the books” – stuff relevant to deficits, etc. and of course a bit more tax on higher earners especially the ultra-rich
Changing the subject Am i right in thinking that as an over-simplified example (could be for the UK ~ ball park) commercial-bank-created “thin-air” money is around a figure between £200bn in “lean times” and has been £400bn in bouyant times? Ad the proportion under mortgages could be indetified.
Figures boffins could get from Land Registry, at least for the about-half of that under the mortgage-for-house-purchase-and-remortgage system? Leaving untouched at least for a while mega-merger money-creation. No separate ‘non-tax’ on either as yet (only the minimal general finserv tax). Couldn’t there eventually be a global rule (started in UK) eventually that money created should be paying a third to local public purposes – helping to replace declined local authority revenues and ring-fenced. After all, then a credit creation charge could be a form of Local Direct Investment from CCC? Flowing directly from banks, shown on mortgage statements and on bank annual reports requiring no Treasury intervention at all? Transparency, clarity as well as simplicity (eventually globally) and a good feeling to all concerned each time they see a payment statement, annual report and/or a Council tax bill. And Eco-Fit to start it off using 20-year money at 1.5% as said before (without needing, for such a special purpose, repayment). £50 per month from landlords for £40k of thorough work and SolarWarmth stored sounds like an unmissable bargain to me, even if it did mean them signing to 5 years, 6 (or eight) security for the tenant. All the rates adjustable, effect incremental. and owners too could benefit from such a system. Snug homes, interseasonal solar warmth.
Am i still as clear as mud? A simple credit creation charge locally spent to aim for.
Ian
I regret that I just do not have time to engage with this
Richard